Can a product's appearance influence a purchasing decision? Yes. Industrial design not only makes a product more appealing—it can also convey quality, innovation, trust, and differentiation from other similar products.
A recent report from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) confirms this idea with relevant data. Seventy-two percent of European consumers consider product design to be important when deciding what to buy, and nearly three out of four are willing to pay more for a better-designed product. In Spain, that figure also stands at 73 percent.
But the report allows us to take it a step further. If industrial design influences consumer choice, it also becomes an asset that is particularly vulnerable to copying, imitation, and counterfeiting. Therefore, protecting a product’s appearance is not just an aesthetic issue. It is a strategic decision within a company’s industrial property management.
What Does Industrial Design Protect?
Industrial design protects the configuration or external appearance of a product. That is, its lines, contours, shape, colors, textures, materials, ornamentation, or a combination of these elements.
It does not protect an abstract idea or a technical solution in and of itself. Other forms of protection, such as patents or utility models, exist for that purpose. An industrial design protects the specific way in which a product is visually presented on the market.
This can be applied to a wide variety of products: furniture, containers, handbags, jewelry, clothing, electronic devices, industrial parts, lighting, toys, packaging, and everyday consumer goods.
In markets where many products offer similar features, appearance can be a deciding factor. Recognizable packaging, a distinctive shape, or a consistent visual style can help consumers identify, remember, and prefer one product over others.
This point is particularly relevant in the digital environment. Purchasing decisions are increasingly made on marketplaces, social media, and e-commerce platforms, where the product’s image carries a great deal of weight before the consumer can physically touch, try, or compare it.
Industrial Design and Counterfeits: A Direct Relationship
Counterfeiting does not always involve copying a brand or reproducing a logo. In many cases, it is the product's appearance that is imitated.
A counterfeit product may replicate the shape of a handbag, the design of a piece of jewelry, the style of a sneaker, the silhouette of a lamp, or the overall appearance of a package. Sometimes it will also feature another brand’s logo. Other times, it will attempt to visually resemble the original product without exactly copying its distinctive mark.
That is where the protection of industrial designs takes on obvious practical value.
A trademark protects the sign that identifies the source of a business: a name, a logo, a graphic combination, or, in certain cases, a distinctive shape. Industrial design, on the other hand, protects the external appearance of a product. These two forms of protection can be complementary, and in industries prone to copying, it is advisable to analyze them in a coordinated manner.
For example, in fashion, jewelry, watches, furniture, accessories, electronics, or packaging, consumers often recognize a product by its appearance rather than by other factors. If that appearance is copied, the damage can go beyond a lost sale. It can affect the company’s reputation, create confusion in the market, and undermine the investment made in creativity, development, and communication.
Why the Best-Designed Products Are the Most Vulnerable
In principle, the more recognizable an industrial design is, the more value it can generate. But it may also be more attractive to those seeking to capitalize on that value without bearing the costs of design, manufacturing, quality, or branding.
The EUIPO report notes that sectors where design plays a key role are particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting. In the European Union, estimated annual losses amount to 12 billion euros in the textile and apparel sector and 2.7 billion euros in the handbag and jewelry sectors. In Spain alone, counterfeiting causes losses of more than 1.2 billion euros in these sectors.
E-commerce has exacerbated this risk. A counterfeit industrial design can appear on a marketplace, circulate on social media, be promoted through targeted ads, or reach consumers through international channels in a very short time.
This poses an additional challenge for companies. By the time the infringement is detected, the counterfeit product may already have been distributed across various platforms or territories. In such a scenario, having a registered design can facilitate enforcement, as it makes it easier to establish more clearly which appearance was protected, starting when, and within which territorial scope.
It's not just a problem for large companies
Counterfeiting is often associated with large companies, but small and medium-sized enterprises are also particularly vulnerable to the copying of industrial designs.
Many small and medium-sized enterprises base their differentiation on a few products or a unique appearance that is an essential part of their competitive advantage. When a third party copies those designs and sells them at a lower price, the consequences can be significant, since SMEs typically have fewer resources to monitor and respond to infringements.
The EUIPO report highlights precisely this gap. Although companies that register industrial property rights tend to show better economic indicators, only about 1% of EU SMEs hold registered design rights.
The figure shows clear room for improvement. Many companies invest in creating attractive products, but they do not always include industrial design protection in their planning. And, in many cases, the problem arises when the product has already become successful and copies begin to appear.
How to Integrate Industrial Design into a Company's Strategy
Protecting an industrial design should start with a simple question: What visual elements make this product recognizable or unique?
From there, it is important to identify which products, packaging, collections, components, or decorative elements have actual or potential commercial value. Not all designs need to be registered, but those that involve significant investment, offer differentiation, or have market potential deserve specific evaluation.
It is also advisable to keep documentation of the creative process: sketches, drafts, renderings, briefs, design decisions, creation dates, and contracts with external designers. This documentation can be useful in the event of a dispute, especially if you need to defend the validity of the design or prove ownership.
Finally, protection must go hand in hand with monitoring. Detecting counterfeit products, imitations, or copies of industrial designs on marketplaces, at trade shows, on social media, or through distribution channels allows us to respond sooner and minimize the impact.
Trademarks, Industrial Design, and Unfair Competition: Complementary Approaches
In some disputes, the copying of a product can be analyzed from different legal perspectives.
If a sign identical or similar to a registered trademark is used, a trademark infringement may occur. If the appearance protected by a registered design is reproduced, an industrial design infringement may arise. And, in certain cases, it may also be assessed whether unfair competition exists, especially when the imitation causes confusion, takes unfair advantage of another’s reputation, or distorts market behavior.
For this reason, protection against counterfeits and counterfeit products rarely relies on a single approach. The most effective strategy is usually to develop a combined approach.
Protecting industrial design means protecting the investment in differentiation
The EUIPO report confirms that industrial design influences consumer choice and contributes to the competitiveness of European companies. But that very value also makes it a target for counterfeiting and copying.
For companies, registering an industrial design should not be viewed as a defensive measure reserved for when a dispute arises. It is a strategic decision that protects the investment made in creativity, development, market positioning, and reputation.
Manolo Mínguez, Senior Associate – Director of the Elzaburu Office in Valencia